Play Civ3 in true windowed mode (for those with Windows)

Chieftess

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Remember the age old questions if Civ3 can run in windowed mode? Well, now Microsoft is giving away Virtual PC for FREE! :eek:

So, there is a work-around for those who still enjoy the game, and want a windowed-mode experience, but it'll 'cost' you half of your memory. If you have your Windows CD, you can install it on the virtual PC. The VPC (virtual PC) grows in size as you use more space, so you can set a hard drive size of 150 gigs, and it'll only use as much real hard drive space as is in your VPC. In other words, if you have 2 Gigs used for the Windows OS, then the real space would be 2 gigs, even if you have 150 gigs to spare. Now, the VPC requires memory, so if you have 512 Megs, you can use 256 megs of RAM. If you have 2 gigs, then 1 gig of RAM. It's a trade off, but when you install Civ3, you can play it in any window size down to 640x480! There is a plug in (selectable from the main menu of the VPC) so you can drag and drop into the VPC. Use the right alt-key to "escape" the VPC window. After you get the drag-and-drop plug in, you don't have to do this.

I'll post step by step instructions later, but at least you can relive the glory days of Civ3 without it even being full screen! Enjoy!
 
Interesting. But I already have figured out a way to get the best of both worlds. I play civ with the task manager running, and when I want to do other things without shutting civ down, I just click on the task manager, the taskbar shows up, and I maximize whatever else is running to use it. That's how I use Civ Assist 2 in full-screen mode and use Word for my turn-logs. It works great for me, and requires no special software.
 
Interesting. But I already have figured out a way to get the best of both worlds. I play civ with the task manager running, and when I want to do other things without shutting civ down, I just click on the task manager, the taskbar shows up, and I maximize whatever else is running to use it. That's how I use Civ Assist 2 in full-screen mode and use Word for my turn-logs. It works great for me, and requires no special software.

I know about that (windows key, alt-tab, or ctrl-esc will also do it). I'm just referring to those from way back who were always looking for a way to play in windowed mode.
 
Playing Civ2 in a Window was one its best features, I will admit, and it took me awhile to get used to not having that ability. I am glad I figured out a workaround. Not disparaging your method at all:) I hope others will adopt things like that, I am glad I can multi-task while playing, it really helps lessen the impact of my Civ-addiction.
 
Are you sure this falls in line with the EULA? I thought a Virtual PC installation counted as an installation just as much as a real PC installation, so you couldn't have a copy installed both as a virtual PC and on a real PC. Not entirely sure about installing the same copy as a virtual PC on itself though.

But the Windows Vista Home Editions also specifically disallow running them in a virtual environment. Vista Business/Ultimate and, AFAIK, XP, don't have these restrictions.

I tried running CivIII on a Windows 98 virtual PC within Vista (standalone Win98 not running on any other PC), but it always froze on the splash screen, so I eventually gave up. Thought it might have something to do with the virtual video card in Virtual PC (Trio 64 or something like that), but if it's working for you, that must not be it.
 
Chieftess, thanks for the tip. :goodjob:
Yeah, running Civ3 in a virtual environment, whether it's Microsoft's Virtual PC or any other one, works because the entire hosted OS is in a window.
When I'm Civving and want to switch to something else, I just hit the Windows key. It pops up the taskbar with the start menu. Pressing WindowsKey+D minimizes Civ if I need to see the desktop. This isn't quite the same as running Civ3 in a window, but it works well. I usually assume everybody using Windows already knows about these types of things, but that's probably not a good assumption, so add it to the techniques in this thread.
 
I learned to never try to play civ3 at work, it just pulls me into a game trance and I can't get anything done. Even reading and writing about the game on here is distracting. Speaking of which, I need to get working......
 
I have another workaround for the windowing issue. It's probably one you all know. In conquests.ini (I think), you just need to add a few lines to set the resolution. It's not true windowing, since there is no window moving functionality, but it's not fullscreen. I'll post the the lines when I'm home, if they help anyone...

EDIT: Paste these into conquests.ini or whatever is appropriate for your version. Edit the "Video Mode" to whatever resolution you want. I think only 4:3 windows are allowed.
-----------------------
KeepRes=1
Video Mode=1024
-----------------------
 
I do the Alt+Tab just to see who's been calling me on the messenger since 2 hours ago :D Civ3 is becoming dangerous now that I play at work.
Isn't there a timer mod for Civ3? Something to display a message every 5 turns/15 mins, or so, to remind me that the real world is outside.

At work? Are you nuts? Yes, there certainly is a program for you. It's called CivAnon!

Spoiler :
Please note that CivAnon is a joke. Playing at work, on the other hand, is damn serious.
 
The thing I hate about "KeepRes=1" is the city/advisor screens.
 
I was excited when I saw this as I can't get Civ 3 to run under Win 7.

I loaded up Virtual PC, installed Conquests etc, and with great anticipation double-clicked the icon to run, only to be told to insert the CD in the drive. :sad:

The CD drive is showing as a folder under the VM and isn't being recognised. Does anyone know a way around this?

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi, not sure if I'm posting in the right place, so sorry if I get it wrong. I've been an avid sidelines reader of tutorials for Civ3 for a couple of years and find them brilliant, but this is a trech question.
I have a new Macbook running Parallels and Windows 7. I wanted to install Civ3, PC version. I read about changing the compatability mode to Windows XP and the isntructions were really easy to follow so I did that. I installed on Windows 7 and it seems to work okay except that Civ3 won't run in a full size window. I can drag the Windows 7 window to make it full screen but the Civ3 bit stays small. I tried asking the Windows7 Action Center to fix it but it hasn't made a difference. I want to play Civ in as much space as possible, so if anyone knows the fix and can explain it step by step, I would be really grateful.
 
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